Monday Night's Countdown with Keith Olbermann featured Olbermann’s most blistering indictment of Bill O'Reilly since their very public feud began...whenever that was, anyway.  Last night’s #3 segment on Countdown was a continuation of the flap over O’Reilly’s baffling comments regarding the WWII massacre at Malmedy (which was actually O'Reilly's thinly-veiled justification of the Haditha massacre).  Although Olbermann’s previous barbs and spots on O'Reilly have been largely satirical up to this point (he frequently refers to O'Reilly as "The Big Giant Head" and "Ted Baxter"), last night's segment was an utterly (and justifiably) scathing assessment of O’Reilly's complete disdain for the truth...And when I say "the truth," I am not just referring the truth about Malmedy but "the truth" as aconcept in and of itself.  While the segment included archival footage of the exhumation of the mass grave at Malmedy, the most powerful moments of the spot were the shots of Olbermann himself – who is often cool and composed – virtually trembling with contempt for O'Reilly as he recounted the flap step by step, from O’Reilly’s initial misrepresentation of the events at  Malmedy to the FOX News revision of O’Reilly’s on-air transcripts to O’Reilly’s half-assed on-air correction (which made even less sense than his original gaffe).

Bill sez: "Ugh.  What the hell is wrong with me?"

Perhaps the most compelling moments of Olbermann’s narrative were the similarities noted between O’Reilly’s version of the events at Malmedy and the version of events proffered by Joseph McCarthy back in 1949.  The parallel is not so surprising at the end of the day, as McCarthy and O’Reilly are fundamentally the same type of demagogic zealots who rose to prominence through grandstanding and self-righteous fear-mongering.  And while one of them has already been consigned to history’s dustbin, the other is surely destined to join him.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann is on MSNBC every weeknight at 8 PM and again at 12 AM (Eastern).  If you’re not already watching it, you might want to give it a shot.

Go, Keith, go!